Our ongoing series reviewing the greatest Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror movies. Note that these reviews may contain spoilers.
Directed by: Steven Spielberg
Produced by: Frank Marshall, George Lucas
Written by: Lawrence Kasdan (Screenplay) George Lucas, Philip Kaufman (Story)
Starring: Harrison Ford, Karen Allen, Paul Freeman, John Rhys-Davies
Original Release: 1981
Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars (Highest Rating)
Synopsis: In 1936, adventurer and archaeologist Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) is approached by the United States Army to help them understand why the Nazis are trying to track down occult relics. The army intelligence agents inform him that the Nazis are trying to locate his former mentor Abner Ravenwood which leads Jones to believe that they are after the Arc of the Covenant, the vessel that holds the remains of the Ten Commandments and ostensibly an artifact of great power. Jones goes to Nepal where he discovers that his mentor has died but he meets up with Ravenwood’s daughter, and his former lover, Marion (Karen Allen). Not far behind, though, are the Nazis in search of the headpiece to a staff that provides the key to finding the Ark. Jones keeps it out of their grasp, but they get enough information to narrow the search which they are conducting in Cairo. Indiana and Marian head there as well, having the one piece that tells them exactly where to look. With the help of Indiana’s old associate Sallah (John Rhys-Davies), they uncover the Ark, but Jones’ old nemesis Belloq (Paul Freeman) is on the scene to wrest if from their grasp. He then turns it over to the Nazis who plan to take it to a sacred place and unlock its secrets. It is then up to Indiana to stop the Nazis before they tap into the unfathomable power of the Ark.
Review/Commentary: At the time that Raiders of the Lost Ark came out in 1981, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg had risen to the status of deities among genre movie-makers and fans believed that could do no wrong (though a closer inspection of Close Encounters would prove that untrue). So when word came out that the two would team up on a movie, expectations surged quickly to the boiling point among genre fans. And against all odds, these two great minds lived up to those expectations, giving us a last burst of creative energy before the rot would begin to set in.
Raiders of the Lost Ark harkened back to similar sources that had inspired Star Wars, the early matinees and serials that drew young audiences into the theaters on Saturdays during the 30’s, 40’s, and 50’s. It channeled the energy and sense of wonder that fueled serials like Ace Drummond and The Lost City and reinvented those tall tales for the modern generation, utilizing the advancements in special effects available to movie-makers by the early 1980’s. It basically brought a fantasy to life on the screen just like Star Wars did, though this time around set a bit closer to home. But it still delivered the same magic as first two Star Wars films as it recaptured the innocence of an earlier era (though with a bit of 70’s cynicism thrown in for good measure) while bringing that to life with state-of-the art movie magic and Spielberg’s fluid, breathless directing.
Of course the performances were key to the film’s success as well. I really can’t imagine any other actor than Harrison Ford succeeding as well in the Indiana Jones role. Jones is the dashing, daring-do hero, but Ford makes him into a real person instead of the caricature that we so often see in films like this. Jones may be the heroic figure, but he is not a perfect, infallible paladin. He feels pain when he gets into a fight and he stumbles at times and suffers the consequences. Ford’s performance makes this all too clear and he takes the Jones character from the unattainable superman character to a more believable everyman (though of great stature) that the audience can relate to. But it was not Ford alone who carried the movie. Karen Allen as Marion was not the typical damsel in distress so often found in the melodramas of old. Instead, she gave us a spunky, feisty female lead that held her own next to the film’s star. Nor did John Rhys-Davies deliver the tired ethnic stereotype with Sallah. Instead he turned the role into essentially a co-lead who never faded next to the film’s central character. It is quite a shame that both Marian and Sallah were relegated to minor status in the subsequent films, a move which may have expedited the decline in quality of the franchise.
Raiders of the Lost Ark would essentially act as a last gasp of inspiration for both Lucas and Spielberg. Lucas would start to shift his once messianic Star Wars franchise away from the grand story at its core to more of a merchandising platform. His career would also diverge into unfortunate missteps (Howard the Duck) and Star Wars clones (Willow) before he ultimately turned the Star Wars franchise into a calculated, money-making machine with the prequels and other spinoffs. Spielberg would take a side-step into the smarmy E.T. with then take an extended break from the genre before returning and delivering multiple vapid big-budget CGI-fests like Jurassic Park, Minority Report, and War of the Worlds. And both of the film-makers would fail to recapture the magic of the first Indiana Jones films with the three sequels that followed it (though the third film, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade was at least adequate).
Raiders of the Lost Ark would also mark the closing of a chapter to some extent on the early part of the Blockbuster era. This would be one of the last films from that time to really inspire a sense of awe and wonder among the audience. The innovation of the film-makers like Lucas and Spielberg that advanced the level of spectacle in the films hitting the theaters during the mid-70’s to the very early 80’s had brought stories and characters to life on the big screen that audiences would not have imagined as recently as the early 70’s. Movies like Jaws, Logan’s Run, Star Wars, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Superman: The Movie, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Alien, The Empire Strikes Back, and ultimately The Raiders of the Lost Ark each provided their own innovations and pushed the boundaries of Blockbuster film-making and eye-popping spectacle. Audiences approached these with a sense of awe, each time wondering what new marvels would come to life on the screen in front of them. But as the 80’s progressed, expectations from the audiences would increase and demands from the studios for slick, Box Office-friendly Blockbusters would shift the direction of the genre (and you can read more about that in our Blockbuster Overload column). Not quite to the level that we would see by the mid-90’s and into the 00’s, but the mindset had already started to work its way in over the years that would follow the release of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Great movies were no longer the goal of Hollywood. Great money-makers were the game now.
Also See: Our Blockbuster Overload Review of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
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